Is ${789381}$ divisible by $9$ ?
Answer: A number is divisible by $9$ if the sum of its digits is divisible by $9$ . [ Why? First, we can break the number up by place value: $ \begin{eqnarray} {789381}= &&{7}\cdot100000+ \\&&{8}\cdot10000+ \\&&{9}\cdot1000+ \\&&{3}\cdot100+ \\&&{8}\cdot10+ \\&&{1}\cdot1 \end{eqnarray} $ Next, we can rewrite each of the place values as $1$ plus a bunch of $9$ s: $ \begin{eqnarray} {789381}= &&{7}(99999+1)+ \\&&{8}(9999+1)+ \\&&{9}(999+1)+ \\&&{3}(99+1)+ \\&&{8}(9+1)+ \\&&{1} \end{eqnarray} $ Now if we distribute and rearrange, we get this: $ \begin{eqnarray} {789381}= &&\gray{7\cdot99999}+ \\&&\gray{8\cdot9999}+ \\&&\gray{9\cdot999}+ \\&&\gray{3\cdot99}+ \\&&\gray{8\cdot9}+ \\&& {7}+{8}+{9}+{3}+{8}+{1} \end{eqnarray} $ Any number consisting only of $9$ s is a multiple of $9$ , so the first five terms must all be multiples of $9$ That means that to figure out whether the original number is divisible by $9 $ , all we need to do is add up the digits and see if the sum is divisible by $9$ . In other words, ${789381}$ is divisible by $9$ if ${ 7}+{8}+{9}+{3}+{8}+{1}$ is divisible by $9$ Add the digits of ${789381}$ $ {7}+{8}+{9}+{3}+{8}+{1} = {36} $ If ${36}$ is divisible by $9$ , then ${789381}$ must also be divisible by $9$ ${36}$ is divisible by $9$, therefore ${789381}$ must also be divisible by $9$.